Switch for railways.



No. 664.579. Patented Dec. 25, |90'.

F. S. PEARSUN.

swncH Fon nAlLwAvs.

(Appumion med Max- 14, 1599.) (No Modal.) 2 SheetsSheet l.

EE? s N0. 664,579. v Patented Dec. 25, |900.-

v F. S. PEARSDN.

4swnH For: nAlLwAYs.

(Application filed, Mar. 14, 1899.)

2 Sheei-Sheet 2.v

(No Model.)

Bill/HJW". UL S. P

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

FRED S. PEARSON, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

SWITCH FoR RAILWAYS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 664,579, dated December25, 1900.

Application filed March 14, 1899. Serial No. 708,994. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRED S. PEARSON, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, and a resident of Boston, county of Suffolk, State o'fMassachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inSwitches forRailways, of which the following is aspeciiication.

This invention is an improvement in automatic switches for`street-railways, and has special reference to switches for use on rail#ways over which motor-cars are run or cars propelled by other means thanhorses; and this improvement has for its object a switch that can beoperated or controlled wholly by the car passing over the road.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating myimprovement, Figure lisatop view,partly in section, of asection of the road containing theimprovement, showing the switch-tongue and switch mechanism. Fig. 2 is atransverse section of the same through the plane indicated by the line0c as, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a detail showing a vertical section at y y,Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is an enlarged vertical section of the road through theplane indicated by the line z z, Fig. l, showing the switch-operatingmechanism iu a position midway between its two eXtreme positions and thewheel of the car depressing the actuator in the rail. Figs. 5 and 6 aresimilar views showing, respectively, the switch-operating mechanism inits extreme opposite positions when the switch is open and closed; andFig. 7 is a detail.

In this improvement the switch is thrown from one posit-ion to the otheror opened or closed, as desired, by the Wheel of thecar passing over thecar-rail and without stopping the car or in any way adecting itsrunning. A

The switch-operating mechanism is located in a pit or excavation beneaththe road-bed and is moved or operated by an actuator situated in thecar-rail and depressed by the carwheel as the latter passes along thetrack. In the construction shown in the drawings this actuator consistsof a lever A, pivoted at one end in au elongated opening in the rail insuch manner that the other or free end can be raised above the surfaceof the rail in position to be depressed by the carwheel passing over it.From the free or movable end a of the lever depends a post B,

On opposite sides of the post B in the pit are two arms E F, mounted onsuitable shafts or bearings C and D, so as to extend toward each otherand move up and down in a vertical plane.

downward and in a direction substantially at right angles to the arms Eand F.Y The ends of these arms G and H are connected by the link ortie-rod I, whereby these arms, and henceV the arms E and F, mounted ontheir respec- 0n the same shafts C and D areother arms G and H,respectively, extending Y tive shafts, are caused to move together. TheAarms E and F are thus connected with one another and, as will be seen byreference to Figs.4, 5, and 6, always move in opposite directions.v Asone arm E swings upward the other arm F will swing downward, and viceversa.,

On the shaft C is mounted a third arm K in such position as to swingback and forth as the shaft turns. To the end of this arm K is connectedthe rocking rod L, the other end of which is attached to theswitch-tongue, and hence as the arm K swings back and forth with theshaft it turns the switch tongue in opposite directions to open andclose the switch. By reference to Figs. 5 and Git will .be seen that asthe arm E turns downward it swings the arm K so as to turn the switch inone direction, and as the arm F turns downward it swings the arm K inposition to re verse the switch or turn it in the other direction. Thedownward movement of the arms E and F thus swings the arm K in oppositedirections and reverses the position of the switch or opens and closesthe latter. The arms E and F are turned downward to thus operate theswitch by engagement with the sliding post B in the following manner: Onthe ends of these arms E and F, respectively, are loosely mounted pawlsM and N, so constructed and pivoted to' their respective arms that whenfree to turn their upper ends will swing inward and rest against thesides of IOO the post B. The bottoms of these pawls are formed with theprojections m and frt, so constructed as to come in contact with andrest upon the platform B when the arms F. and F swing downward. As willbe seen from the drawings, as these projections strike against theplatform the upper ends of the pawls are thrown outwardand away from thekpost B.

On the sides of the post B against which the pawls rest are shoulders orprojections e and f, so placed that when the post is in its upwardposition-that is, when it has been lifted up by the actuator-theshoulder willV be immediately above the end of the uppermost pawl or thepawl on that arm, E or F, which is turned upward,.as is shown in Fig. 4and as will be understood from Figs. 5 and 6. 1f ,now when the pawl andshoulder are thus engaged the post is pushed down, the shoulder pressingon the end of the pawl will turn the arm E or F connected with itdownward, and thus swing the arm K in either direction, as it may be, toreverse the switch. As the arms E and F are connected together, one ofthem will be raised as the other is turned down, and to prevent the pawlof the upwardmoving arm, which is thus freed from contact with theplatform, from swinging inward and engaging with the shoulder on thepost, and

thereby interfering with the movement of the arms and the operation ofthe mechanism, the pawl is held away from the side of the post as itmoves up by the latches O and P. These latches are mounted on thestandard Q, Fig. 7., erected on the platform B, in posit-ion to engagewith the ends of the pawls. The latches are pivoted to the standard sothey can swing outward, but are prevented from swinging inward towardeach other by the studs q q. On the ends of the pawls are pins m and n',and on the ends of the latches are cam-shaped projections 0 and p,arranged to engage with the pins, whereby the pawl in its upwardmovement is held out away from the side of the vpost until itsengagement with the latter is required. 'v

The operation of the above mechanism is yas follows: In Fig. 6 the partsof the mechanism'are shown in their respective positions when the switchis open and the actuator down. As will be seen, the armE is raised, withthe end of its pawl M lifted above the end of the latch O and resting onthe side of the shoulder e on the post B, while the arm F is turned downwith the projection fn. of its pawl N resting'on the platform B' and theupper end of the pawl thrown outward away from contact with the side ofthe post. i If now it is desired to reverse the switch, the actuator Ais raised, as indicated by dotted lines, and the post B drawn up. Aswill be understood from Fig. 6 and as is shown in Fig. 4:, the end ofthe pawlM will now drop below the shoulder e in position to engage withthe latter, and as the actuator is depressed by the` ca'r wheel, asshown, and the post B thus pushed down the shoulder will'press againstthe end ofthe pawl as the post descends and swing the arm E downward,the pin m on the pawl passing back of the cam projection o on the latchO. As the arm E swings downward it turns the shaft C and swings the armK, mounted on the latter, to one side in position to slide the rockingrod L and reverse the switch-tongue and close the switch. The arm Econtinues to descend with the post until the projection m on the bottomof the pawl M strikes against the platform B', when the upper end ofthepawl will be thrown out away from the side of the post and fromengagement with the shoulder e, as in Fig. 5, the pin m' having passedbelow the cam projection o on the latch. Since the arms Er and F areconnected together by the arms G and H and rod I, as the arm E is thuspushed downward by the descent of the post the opposite arm F will beswung upward and its pawl N lifted from the platform B and be free toturn. By referring to Figs. 4 and 6 it vwill be seen that as the pawl Nmoves upward with the arm F the pin 'a' on the end of the pawl slidesalong the outside of the cam projection p on the latch P and yholds thepawl from swinging inward and coming under the shoulderfon this side ofthe post and interfering with the descent of the latter. The pincontinues to move along the projection on the latch and keeps the pawlout of engagement with the shoulder as the pawl is raised until the endof the pawl is above the bottom of the shoulder and is in its upwardposition resting on the side of the shoulder f, as in Fig. 5. The postis nowall the way down, the wheel having passed over the actuator, andthe parts of the mechanism in the position shown in Fig. 5, with theswitch reversed or closed. As seen, the arm E is now down, with thebottom fm of its pawl M resting on the platform B and the upper end ofthe pawl thrown back from the post and out of engagement with theshoulder e, and the arm Fraised, with its pawl N resting against vtheside of the post in position to drop under and engage with the shoulderfwhen the post is raised. To reverse the switch again, the actuator israised and the post B lifted up, as before. The pawl N now comes underand engages with the shoulderf and as the post descends swings the arm4F downward and turns the shaft D. This shaft in turning by means of thearm H, rod I, and arm G on the shaft C turns the latter shaft and swingsthe arm K back in position, as shown in Fig. 6, to slide the rod L so asto reverse or open the switch. As before, whenthe one arm F swings downthe other arm is turned upward and the pawl M raised, the pin lm.' onits upper end sliding along the outside of the cam projection o on thelatch O and keeping the pawl from engagement'with' the shoulder e, aswas the case with the pawl N on the arm `F. The parts of the mechanismare thus IOO IIO

sition. It will thus be seen that every time the post B is made todescend it engages with one or the other of the arms E or F, accordingas to whether the switch is already open or closed and the one or theother arm is raised, and turning this arm downward swings the arm K inposition to reverse the switch, and hence to change the switch from anopen to a closed or a closed to an open position it is only necessary toraise the post B by lifting the actuator and then push the post down bydepressing the actuator by the car-wheel, when the switch will bereversed.

The engagement of the rocking rod Lwith the switch is shown in Figs. 1and 3. The rocking rod, as shown, moves in a tube or casing L and isconnected at its farther end to an arm l, mounted on a shaft R, turningin bearings r r, Fig. 3. Mounted on the other end of this shaft in adirection substantially at right angles to the arm Z is an arm s, theposition of the arms being such that as the arm l is moved back andforth the arm s will be raised or lowered. To the arm s is connected arod t t, the other end of which is at- -tached to the switch-tongue T.As will be understood from the drawings, as the rocking rod L is movedback and forth by the arm K it turns the shaft R and by means of the arms and rod z5 t slides the switch-tongue in an open or closed position.

It will be evident, as far as the operation of the switch mechanism isconcerned, that the actuator A in the rail may be lifted by any suitablemechanism, it being only necessary to raise the movable end a of theactuator in position to be depressed by the carwheel.v When used inconnection with what are termed electric roadsthat is, roads in whichthe cars are propelled by electric motors-the actuator may be raised byan electromagnet. The magnet is placed on the under side of the car infront ofthe wheel, as shown at V, Fig. 4, and when it is desired tooperate the switch mechanism to reverse the switch the electric fluid isturnedlon the magnet as the car approaches the actuator,

and when over the latter the magnet will attract and lift up the end ofthe actuator, and thus raise the post and set the mechanism ready to beoperated' by the depression of the actuator by the car-wheel.

On the actuator is a counterpoise-weight W, which serves to balance theweight of the post B and facilitate the movement of the actuator.

In the particular construction shown in the drawings theswitch-operating mechanism is in du plicate-that is, there are two postsB with their connecting-arms E and F on each side of the pit, operatedby actuators in each of the rails, whereby the wheels on each side ofthe car move the switch. In this construction, as will be seen, theshaft C, on which the arms E and Kare mounted,extends across the pit,and the two sets of mechanism are thereby made to move simultaneously inoperating the switch'. For all practical purposes, however, thisduplicate system is not required, a single set of mechanism operated byan actuator in one of the rails being sufficient to move the switch.

The method of operating or reversing the switch by this mechanism is asfollows: As the motorman or driver on the car approaches the switch heobserves whether it is turned in theproper direction, and if it is paysno attention to the switch mechanism, but allows his car to run over therails in the direction desired. If, however, he observes that the switchis not turned in the proper directionthat is, if it is open and hedesires it closed or closed and he requires it openbefore his carreaches the actuator A in the rail he turns the electricity into themagnet V, and as the front end of the car on which the magnet is placedpasses over the actuator the magnet attracts and lifts up the latter infront of the car-wheel, and as the car passes along the wheel depressesthe actuator, thus operating the mechanism and reversing the switch,whereby the latter is set in the proper direction before the car reachesit. It will be observed that the only action on the part of the motormanwhen the switch is to be reversed is to turn the electricity into themagnet, and the car as it passes along itself operates the mechanism andturns the switch, and that it is not necessary to stop the car orinterfere in the least with its progress.V

What I claim is- 1. In a railroad-switch, in combination, an actuatorlocated in the car-track and adapted to be raised by mechanism on thecar, and afterward depressed by the car-wheel, a magnet on the car bywhich the actuator is raised, and mechanism connected with the actuatorand with the switch and operated by the former, whereby when theactuator is depressed the switch is reversed, substantially asdescribed.

2. In a railroad-switch, in combination, an actuator located in thecar-track and capable of being raised by mechanism on the car andafterward depressed by the car-wheel, a vertically-sliding post Battached to and operated by the actuator, oscillating arms E and Farranged and adapted to engage alternately with the post, and mechanismconnecting the arms with the switch, whereby as the post moves down itengages with either one of the arms and reverses the switch,substantially as described. i

3. In a railroad-switch, in combination, the actuator A located in thecar-track and capable of being raised by mechanism on the car andafterward depressed, by the car-wheel; vertically-sliding post B, armsE, F connected together and adapted to engage alternately with the post,means whereby the disengaged arm is held from engagement with the post;mechanism connecting the arms with the switch, whereby as the post movesdown it TIO engages with eithe1I one of the armsdand reverses theswitch; and a magnet located on the oar by which the actuator is raised,substantialiy as described.

4. In a railroad-switch, in combination, the actuator A, located in thecar-track; post B attached to and operated by the actuator; arms E and Fconnected together-and mounted on shafts C and vD and adapted to engageio alternately'with the post; means whereby the `disengaged 'arm is heidfrom engagement with the post; arm K mounted on and movingwith the shaftC; mechanism connecting the arm K with switch; and the magnetV on thecar and adapted to raise the actuator, substan- I5 tialy as described.

w FRED s. PEARSON.

Witnesses:

WALTER P. PLUMMER, CLEMENT M. CUMMING.

